Peanut Butter M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

The other week I had a rather large bag of peanut butter M&M's on hand and I wanted to bake some of them up in a treat.

I decided a cookie bar would be the perfect solution.  While I'm a huge fan of peanut butter M&M's on their own, for me, personally, a cookie bar isn't complete unless it also has chocolate in it.  Especially when the bars also have peanut butter in them.  So, enter my Peanut Butter M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars creation.  The title is almost longer than the time it takes to throw them together! ;)

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
2/3 c. smooth peanut butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. peanut butter M&M's
1/2 c. chocolate chips

Oven Temperature: 350 degrees
Baking time: 25 minutes

Combine the first 4 ingredients, mixing until smooth.  Add in the eggs and vanilla, again mixing well. Next mix in the dry ingredients.  Once all ingredients have been fully combined, it's time to add the M&M's and chocolate chips.  I love how pretty M&M's look.

Once the extras are mixed in well, it's time to place the mixture into a lightly greased 9x13" pan.  This will not spread out very well on its own, so you'll have to use your hands to get the bars in place.  If you are worried about the dough sticking to your hands, you can simply spray a little non-stick spray on your hands or use a piece of wax paper for pressing down on the dough.

Place the bars in your preheated oven, allowing them to bake for approximately 25 minutes.  They'll need to set for about 5 or 10 minutes once you remove them from the oven.  (If you don't care for moist, soft cookie bars, go ahead and bake this for a full 30 minutes for a slightly firmer result.)

Remove from the oven and allow the bars to cool.  The edges should be slightly golden brown and the center should be set.  Once you've waited for as long as you can stand it, go ahead and slice into bars and serve up.  These taste the best when they are warm.  My apologies that the next picture ended up being blurry...unfortunately I can't retake it as these bars didn't last long enough! ;)  Trust me when I tell you these things are GOOD!!